(NOTE FROM JEAN: This is a departure from my usual format, so you’ll find info and prices below the text.)

The visionary paintings of Larry John Palsson (1948-2010) were discovered a year after his death when the contents of his modest Seattle, Washington, home were offered for sale.

This unusual trove of paintings — hundreds in all — is the work of an individual who longed to be an engineer but couldn’t hold a job because of an unspecified medical condition that may have been some form of autism from what we know. Larry Palsson lived with his widowed mother nearly all of his life and, somewhere along the way, taught himself to paint with exhilarating results.

His inventive treatment of geometric forms, innate sense of color, meticulous brushwork, and adventurous mix of media and material — varnish over acrylic paint on a particleboard panel; acrylic on vinyl; acrylic on cardboard with an oil wash — add up to a body of work that’s as deeply personal as it is compelling.

Based on a notebook found with Larry’s art, he never expected or intended his work to see the light of day. His paintings were found unframed, packed into cardboard boxes and, with one or two exceptions, are untitled, undated and unsigned. The small group of paintings featured here represent J Compton Gallery’s first offering of Larry’s work online.

For more about Larry John Palsson, see my latest posts in Collecting My Thoughs. Clickhere.And here.